US authorities seek four Pakistanis in $770 million Medicare fraud case

US authorities are seeking four Pakistani nationals accused of running a call center operation that allegedly turned stolen Medicare data into hundreds of millions of dollars in false claims.

The HHS Office of Inspector General identified the fugitives as Fizza Farid, Faizan Saleem, Shearyar Arif and Ruknuddin “Rick” Charolia. The agency said they may be hiding in Pakistan or the United Arab Emirates. The four allegedly used Hello International Marketing Solutions, or HIMS, to obtain Medicare beneficiary information, including identification numbers, through theft and deception.

HHS-OIG said Farid worked for HIMS and acted as a nominee owner of a durable medical equipment provider. It believes she fled the United States for Pakistan in late April 2025. Charolia allegedly operated HIMS with Aamir Ali Arif, while Saleem, Shearyar Arif and other defendants allegedly distributed beneficiary data and recruited nominee owners.

The case grew out of the US Justice Department’s 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. Federal prosecutors in Illinois allege that the defendants and their associates caused $703,834,742 in fraudulent claims to be submitted for over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits, durable medical equipment and genetic tests that beneficiaries had not requested, received or agreed to receive. Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans paid approximately $418.6 million.

According to prosecutors, the Pakistan-based call center obtained sensitive data through hacking, scraping publicly accessible websites and deceptive sites advertising free healthcare products. The information was allegedly sold or distributed to US medical equipment providers and laboratories, including entities controlled through nominee owners, which then submitted the claims.